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EGM Review: NCAA Football 14

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July 23, 2013

 

Keep choppin’

Growing up in New Jersey, collegiate athletics always took a backseat to the professionals. That’s probably because we have a lot more pro teams in the area than legitimate college teams—and because the pros win a lot more championships. So, when it comes to college football, there’s only ever been one choice when it comes to pledging your allegiance: the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

It was an easy choice, then, when it came time for me to decide who’d play the starring role in my NCAA Football 14 Dynasty. I’d continue the work that current Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Greg Schiano started in Piscataway a decade ago, trying to further drag the name of Rutgers athletics out of the Division I muck.

Unfortunately, playing NCAA Football 14 is kind of like rooting for Rutgers: You do it because it’s the only option available. While a few tweaks here and there do add to the experience, most of this release comes across as a sad, mailed-in, final effort on this console generation before we get into the pomp and circumstance of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. And with no one to give them any competition, it’s no surprise that NCAA’s bar continues to fall.

Speaking of low bars, one of the new additions to NCAA is the Nike Skills Trainer mode—a fancy way of saying “tutorial.” If this is your first time playing an NCAA game, the Skills Trainer is a safe way to not embarrass yourself when you actually get out on the gridiron, providing you with the ins and outs on how to run the option and how to put just enough touch on that pass into double coverage. But like with the rest of NCAA, numerous, frustrating logic flaws will probably have you wanting to take your lumps on the field instead.

First off, no tutorial should ever teach a newcomer to football that it’s OK to throw into double coverage. That goes against the most basic rules of the game, and the fact NCAA tries teaching this shows how far the game is up its own jockstrap. Also, the success criteria on several drills seem completely arbitrary. Several times in the option tutorial, I “failed”—and that’s because even though I made the pitch at the proper time, the play still got busted up by the AI. The reverse also happened: I didn’t make the pitch, got a huge gain, but since I was—according to the game’s broken AI—supposed to make the pitch, I failed. Once you’re in a real game, color commentator Kirk Herbstreit will even remark that getting a gain on a misread option—like I did in the drill—is “always a win.” Not according to NCAA Football 14, Kirk.

And this, I found out, would be the first of many logic problems I’d encounter throughout the game. Maybe this stems in part from the fact that college football rankings are a joke, based on an arbitrary voting system to determine the best teams and players in the nation. Maybe EA Tiburon is simply trying to simulate the “human” factor of many sports, but in a videogame, I need a little more AI and a little less “human” than what NCAA 14 provides.

The next failure came at the end of my first Dynasty season, when my Rutgers Scarlet Knights went 10-2 in a schedule that include five Top 25 teams—only losing to eventual (and undefeated) conference winner University of Houston and perpetual powerhouse Notre Dame—and were promptly relegated to the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. While fighting world hunger is certainly something to aspire to, that particular bowl game is anything but. To see my team, who finished with a No. 13 ranking and just two losses, get a worse bowl than schools with 8-4 and 9-3 records and lower rankings was infuriating.

But it wasn’t as infuriating as when my star running back, who amassed a stupendous 2,100 rushing yards and 16 TDs over the course of the season, wasn’t even nominated for the Heisman. I’m not saying he had to win it, but when the next-highest rusher was more than 500 yards behind him—and when that back managed to get nominated—the whole situation started to seem a bit ridiculous.

So, like I said, logic problems galore. But EA Tiburon has also made several changes that do improve on the overall experience. The recruiting system has been streamlined, so you now assign a limited number of points toward prospects that you wish to recruit hard, with bonuses given for random factors the particular recruit cares about. How close is your school to home, how much you win, how much playing time you promise, and more play into a recruit’s willingness to sign with you. This streamlined approach lets you get back and play your next game quickly, without spending hours trying to beg the top prospects to come play for you.

Of course, another added feature in Dynasty Mode is the new RPG-like progression system of your coaching staff. While this is finally a way to give more weight to wins and how well your team performs in games—a critical shortcoming of previous NCAA incarnations—this system feels like it throws off the balance of the game. After a while, the upgrades remove much of the challenge. More in-depth scouting, kickers that never freeze, fewer penalties on the field, and boosts to your team during critical game moments are just a few examples of the new “powers” your coach can have. Those are significant buffs, and since the core gameplay doesn’t ramp up to match your newfound abilities, it feels like you’re turning the difficulty down as you get better at the experience. A more effective way of doing this would’ve been giving players a choice of three or so boosts off the list of dozens you can unlock. That way, everyone’s coach would be a little different, but the game balance wouldn’t be upset in the process.

Another addition to NCAA this year? EA Sports’ card-based Ultimate Team. It’s about time this popular mode made it into NCAA, and die-hard players can now pick up Bo Jackson, Peyton Manning, Barry Sanders, Randy Moss, and more to make a superteam.

The core physics engine has also been modified—using an updated version of the same tech that debuted in last year’s Madden—in an attempt to provide a more realistic tackling experience and improve the run game AI, which it does on both accounts. For the most part, this might be the best actual football experience from the NCAA franchise to date, even if it’s at the sacrifice of in-house originality.

It’s just a shame that the engine doesn’t bring along more realistic visuals, too. NCAA 14’s graphics, by and large, still look like they’re from the beginning of this console generation—and the glitches don’t help with the lack of polish, either. Mind you, EA promised that a day-one patch would correct some technical bugs, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that my experience included abysmal load times, a half-dozen crashes, and players who would literally stand still on the field in the middle of plays. With all the bugs I encountered, it had better be a massive patch.

Even still, I had fun with NCAA Football 14. I can’t deny that. It’s still football, and it still feels satisfying when you get a pick or score a late TD to ice a game. Ultimate Team and the streamlined recruitment process were nice touches, too. But when I look at NCAA, I can’t help but think to myself: If I were a true college football fan, why would I want to play a game that’s not bringing its very best to the field? In the end, it’s the same reason I root for Rutgers and not USC or Alabama: because I’m stuck with no other choice.

Developer: EA Tiburon • Publisher: EA Sports • ESRB: E – Everyone • Release Date: 07.09.13
6.5
A few tweaks, a couple of tacked-on modes, and some better mechanics from the borrowed Madden engine can’t overcome the basic logic flaws and imbalances that seem to be annual staples in NCAA.
The Good Ultimate Team debuts in NCAA; streamlined recruitment process.
The Bad Poorly balanced RPG-leveling system for coaches; logic problems galore.
The Ugly A lack of competition continues to result in a lack of ingenuity.
NCAA Football 14 is available on Xbox 360 and PS3. Primary version reviewed was for PS3.
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Assassin’s Creed IV Will Expand Storytelling Techniques, Says Lead Writer

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There are many ways to tell a story through videogames. Something Assassin’s Creed IV lead writer Darby McDevitt wanted this time around, however, was to make sure Black Flag‘s world would help influence and tell the story—beyond expected arcs about buried treasure, damsels in distress, and massive naval battles associated with pirates.

Talking to EGM, McDevitt explained how part of this more subtle form of storytelling through environments starts with the major hub cities.

“You know, our cities are very different. Our city designers have been given a mandate to make sure Kingston has its own flavor. Kingston was a British colony, and the British were probably the worst proponents of slavery at the time, so we’re going to have them come across as the most adamant proponents of slavery,” McDevitt tells EGM. “They were also the worst behaved, so Kingston has to feel more like a town built on slavery and sailors and plantations and things like that.

“Havana was controlled by the Spanish, and they were a lot more—I don’t want to say ‘nice,’ because there’s nothing nice about slavery—but they have a lot more rules in place about buying and selling slaves.  It was much less common, so Havana feels different. It feels more Western European. Even the crowd flow is different, so you can tell stories on that scale.”

The cities in Black Flag only make up a small portion of the world you will explore, though. With some 75 uncharted locations in the game, there’s more than plenty of wilderness to explore and tame as well— within the main story.

“You can be wandering through a jungle and a tree has fallen over and there’s a dead body under it, and then it’s like, ‘Oh, what happened there?’ We’re trying to hit all of those levels, and I’ve found a lot of the little details have surprised me even as the writer,” explains McDevitt. “I think we’re putting a lot more care into that small detail of stripped environmental storytelling, and I hope that comes through to a much greater degree. So yeah, we’re trying to hit a broad sweep of storytelling through the entire world itself.”

Darby’s desire to change how the Assassin’s Creed series tells its stories doesn’t end with adding greater emphasis on environments servicing narrative. The writer also wants to see the ties between the past and the present featured more prominently—something he actively focused on while penning Black Flag.

“We designed the present story to kind of mirror Edward’s place in the story, too. I’ve always felt that the present day stories existed on different planes, you know,” says McDevitt. “Desmond had his thing going on, he was always going back into assassins’ memories to look for stuff, but the themes didn’t always match up. I did like that there was a nice father-son conflict in ACIII in the present and the past, so that was cool.  For ACIV, we wanted keep a little bit of that going. But I can’t say any more than that.”

For more on Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag—launching on PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii U October 29 with PC, PS4, and Xbox One versions to follow—be sure to check out EGM #260, available on newsstands everywhere now.

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Martin Brodeur Named NHL 14 Cover Athlete

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If you’ve followed hockey over the past 20 years, you know there have been few players as dominant as Martin Brodeur. Many consider him the greatest goaltender of all-time, as he holds or is tied for 25 different NHL records, including most wins and shutouts. He has won four Vezina trophies (best goalie in the league), three Stanley Cups, and even a pair of Olympic gold medals.

Now, he has one more line to add to his prolific list of accomplishments.

With more than 22 million votes cast, Brodeur has beaten out the Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky to earn the right to be the cover athlete for EA Sports’ NHL 14.

Some would say that this was more about his career accomplishments—since his numbers have begun to trail off in the twilight of his career—but this was the second year that the public vote for the honor. If anyone nodded their head in Marty’s direction, it was the fans.

“The support I’ve received throughout the cover vote campaign has been incredible,” said Brodeur in a press release. “My kids pushed me to participate in the campaign, and they are really excited to see their dad on the cover of the game they play all the time. I want to thank all the NHL fans who campaigned and voted for me.”

Brodeur is the first goaltender to grace the cover since NHL 97, when John Vanbiesbrouck of the Florida Panthers was given the honor.

Of course, being a New York Rangers fan, this year I may have to print out a picture of Rangers’ captain Ryan Callahan and toss out Brodeur’s cover slip. No offense, Marty, but it wouldn’t feel right having you in my video game library.

NHL 14 skates onto PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 September 10 in North America, September 13 in the rest of the world. 

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Assassin’s Creed IV’s Game Director Talks About the Importance of Crew

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One of the most appealing features of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is being able to captain your own pirate ship and set sail in any direction, with no man as your master. But piloting your own ship around the Caribbean is far from being a one-man task. You need people you can trust to help guide the ship through rough waters or difficult encounters with government ships less than welcoming to someone waving a black flag. You need a crew. In an interview with EGM, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag game director Ashraf Ismail talked at length about this key gameplay detail.

“We have two types of crews, there’s the named crew and then there’s sort of the Red Shirts. A lot of gameplay comes from the named characters, like your first mate. They have some side missions, which are very key to flushing out their story, to give them a bit more meat and purpose in the overall narrative. And they play gameplay roles as well.”

And while describing unnamed crew as “Red Shirts” might suggest they’re expendable, Ashraf says they aren’t just there to be randomly killed off. They still play critical roles in your adventures on the high seas.

“These are the crew that you can gain or lose based on how you play the game. The unnamed crew is really important for boarding.  If you’re taking on a man-of-war, and you go on with only 10 guys, you’re going to have a lot trouble,” explains Ismail.  “So you need to worry about your crew.  If you lose too much crew, you can’t populate your ship.  So you really have to pay attention to them in regards to the number you have on board.”

Should you fail in your duties as captain to protect and take care of your crew, you need not worry too much—it seems there are a boatload (pun intended) of available crewmen in Assassin’s Creed IV who would love to come aboard the Jackdaw.

“There’s a lot of mechanisms for acquiring crew [through] finding systemic events that have happened in the world that you can see,” says Ismail. “You can save crew and pirates from government patrols, you can go to taverns for crews, you can hire and pay for crew, you can save crew during some boarding scenarios based on some actions that you do, and you can also gain crew who mutinies from enemy ships.  So there’s a lot of ways to gain or lose unnamed crew.”

Through our conversation with Ashraf, we also learned that there is a limit to how much crew you can have. So if you are a phenomenal captain and thought you could just hoard potential crewmen, think again. The Jackdaw’s crew quarters are upgradable, though, so you can always bring more crew along over time (up to a point), of course.

For more information on what to expect from Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag—launching on PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii U October 29 with PC, PS4, and Xbox One versions to follow—be sure to check out EGM #260, available on newsstands everywhere now!  

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EGM Developer Chat: Transistor Creative Director, Greg Kasavin

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Looking to avoid a sophomore slump, the guys over at Supergiant Games, creators of the smash hit Bastion, have a cyperpunk dream come true ready to deliver early in 2014 on PS4 (and potentially other systems). We had a chance to catch up with the studio’s creative director, Greg Kasavin, for a few minutes to get a more in-depth look at what makes Transistor tick.

EGM: What was some of the inspirations for Transistor’s cyberpunk theme?

Greg Kasavin: It’s always tough pinning down our inspirations, as we take sort of a melting-pot approach on our team, drawing from many different sources and media across all different aspects of the game. Where it started was, we really enjoyed creating the fantasy-themed world for our first game Bastion, and wanted to see what we could come up with in the science fiction genre this time around. While we were initially drawn to the cyberpunk aesthetic, we systematically rejected just about all the conventions, from the flowing trench coats to the pouring rain to the fat magnum pistols and so on. It’s not that we dislike these things — rather, we think they’ve been done really well elsewhere already, and it’s very important to us to find our own identity with our games. So we ended up with this romanticized, anachronistic-feeling city with some vintage qualities and some futuristic qualities as well. Jen Zee our art director took influence from the Art Nouveau movement of the early 20th century for aspects of the visual style, and we also looked to aspects of the late ’60s and ’70s when thinking about the game’s world. But that’s just one example. It takes us a while to distill all our ideas into something concrete, and the result contains influences from many different games and all sorts of different media from different eras.

EGM: I know there is a huge focus on Red’s voice being missing. Can you tell us a bit more about that?

GK: We were interested in the idea of a silent protagonist who was silent for reasons tied to the story, and having her paired up with another character with the opposite problem — his body is gone and all that’s left of him is his voice. We thought it would be interesting to explore this type of relationship through a game and let players get close to that relationship through their actions. I don’t want to say too much more about it since the story is very much about these characters and how they got into this situation, and what they’re going to do about it now. In Red’s case, we reveal early on that she was an up-and-coming star in this world, so the loss of her voice might be even worse for her than it would be for most people.

EGM: Tell us more about the unique combo system. Not only does Red have special attacks assigned to the face buttons, but she can stop time. Can you explain to us how it all works together?

GK: Red is having a very bad evening at the start of the game though the one consolation is that she discovers this extraordinary weapon called the Transistor. It turns out to have a variety of powerful functions, and one of them essentially lets her stop the entire world around her, plan her next set of actions, then execute them in a supercharged fashion. This is a core aspect of play, as we wanted to create a strategic and thoughtful feel to the action despite the simple-to-use controls. So, at almost any time you can use this ability to turn the tables, get out of a tight spot, overwhelm a particular opponent, and so on. We liked how open-ended it felt and wanted to create a deep-feeling system that provided a lot of natural drama. The exciting thing about planning is that plans sometimes don’t go over exactly as expected, and then you need to quickly re-evaluate the situation and make the best of it.

EGM: How hard is it to balance the combat between real-time and preventing players from just spamming the time stop ability?

GK: We were really interested in capturing the sensation of strategic and tactical games in the context of an action RPG, so finding the right balance between the real-time action and the ability to stop and plan was one of the central design challenges while we were prototyping. The strategic planning mode is very powerful though you quickly find it’s not to be used recklessly, since it leaves you vulnerable for several seconds after you use it. In this way there’s a natural incentive to use it wisely, to make sure you’re out of harm’s way at the end point of your plan. Likewise, some abilities or encounters may be easier or quicker if you duke it out in real time. We don’t want to force the planning mode onto players, we want them to discover it for themselves and decide when and how best to use it. On Bastion we were tweaking and tuning that game down to the very end of development, and I expect we’ll do the same with Transistor, though we’re happy with where that balance stands at the moment!

If you want more information about Transistor from Greg and the gang at Supergiant Games, be sure to pick up issue #260 of EGM available on newsstands now!

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EGM Review: Deadpool

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Don’t forget your syrup! We’re making pancakes!

It’s never easy turning a licensed product into a videogame, but it can be especially hard when it comes to comic books. Developers typically have a wealth of history from which to draw, but that also leads to fanatical fanbases who love to criticize the slightest bit of “creative interpretation.” Or, on the flipside, you’ll see projects commissioned to be made with half the budget and half the time—and then publishers wonder why we, the game-loving public, trash the end result.

But every now and again, the stars align. With time, money, knowledge, respect for the product, and understanding from the fanbase, you’ll have an experience worth playing. The guys at High Moon Studios are familiar with this; they’ve done it twice now with a pair of original Transformers videogames. But can they possibly handle the biggest challenge they’ve faced so far in the form of Deadpool?

Based on the Marvel character best known for breaking the fourth wall and spoofing a flurry of other comic-book characters, Deadpool is a love letter, plain and simple, to the fans who’ve supported him since the Rob Liefeld/Fabien Nicieza days in the early ’90s. Luckily for us, though (no offense to those guys—well, maybe Liefeld a little), High Moon asked Daniel Way to write the script instead. Fitting, since Way’s run with the character is probably why Deadpool’s now at the height of his popularity.

And the game unfolds exactly how Deadpool fans might expect: Everyone’s favorite Merc with a Mouth decides he wants to be in his own videogame. Yep, fourth wall already smashed to smithereens. So he calls up the guys at High Moon, threatens them (a lot!), and gets the green light. We then begin stage one, where Deadpool must hunt down a big-time executive type in order to rake in a big bounty. Unfortunately for Deadpool, this particular fat cat is doing business with the Marauders and Mister Sinister, and he’s under their protection. Deadpool can’t be having that—no, sir!

Thus begins one of the wildest gaming rides I’ve had in quite some time. Sure, Way’s comics made me laugh for a couple of minutes each month, but this game had me in stitches for almost the entire eight-hour experience (give or take an hour, depending on your difficulty).

Aside from the smartly executed script, the game looks solid; it’s firmly entrenched in Marvel lore, yet it’s also got a splash of Looney Tunes when it comes to animations, character reactions, and general tomfoolery. The excellent voice work certainly adds to the atmosphere, too. Nolan North channels every ounce of Deadpool (and the voices in his head) he can muster through that red-and-black mask and when grouped with other voice veterans like Steve Blum as Wolverine and Fred Tatasciore as Cable, the acting is top notch.

But not everything about Deadpool is a perfect mile-high pile of pancakes. Deadpool loves guns. He also loves swords. In fact, any tool that can deal death is a high priority in his fractured mind. So High Moon faced an understandably difficult undertaking in finding the proper balance between guns and melee weapons. Unfortunately, the Deadpool game doesn’t quite get that balance right as the action ebbs and flows back and forth between having to use guns and then use melee weapons, instead of blending the two together more to craft a smoother combat experience. Also, while the combo system works fine and sees Deadpool transition smoothly from enemy to enemy, the broken camera and floaty platforming sequences serve as unseen foes that ultimately detract from the experience.

Still, Deadpool also features a few combat tweaks that definitely add to the experience, such as a “Momentum Meter” that fills up with continued success. The upgrade system that requires you to cash in “Deadpool Points” earned from massive combos is a decent touch, and being able to wield a variety of handheld, throwable, and projectile weapons helps keep the experience from becoming a complete button-masher. The game also offers eight challenge maps—with four levels of difficulty—that offer some replayability.

Even with a few gameplay issues, Deadpool hit just about every note I wanted. The campaign offers enough hysterical choices that I played through it several times—and I even watched as others in the office experienced it for the first time. Ah, so many fond memories.

If you’re a fan of Deadpool, you’ll certainly appreciate the experience, but if you’re really unfamiliar with the character (even though I don’t know how that’s possible at this point), you might be a bit wary of having this game be your first experience with Wade Wilson (Oh, no! I revealed his secret identity! Spoilers!).

Developer: High Moon Studios • Publisher: Activision • ESRB: M – Mature • Release Date: 06.25.13
8.0

You’ll be fighting the camera sometimes as much as enemies, and the balance between guns and melee needs a bit more work, but most of the time, I was laughing too hard to care. The script is a love letter to Deadpool fans, so if you love the Merc with the Mouth, this game will hit your chimichanga-flavored sweet spot.
The Good Hysterical story that channels the best of Deadpoool.
The Bad Balance between melee and guns needs work; camera can be a hindrance.
The Ugly WHERE’S HYDRA BOB?!
Deadpool is available on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. Primary version reviewed was for Xbox 360.
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EGM Review: Company of Heroes 2

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Harsh winter, harsher reality

In America, we often glorify our own involvement in World War II. But it’s easy to forget about our allies—especially the Soviets, who we’d subsequently spend much of the rest of the 20th century villainizing after the war. If Stalin and his men hadn’t forced the Nazis into a prolonged war on three fronts that bled Hitler’s boys dry, though, we might be living in a very different world indeed.

It’s easy to look back on a conflict that saw the loss of so many—and went on for so long—as a mere collection of dates and names of battles. It’s safer to just look at statistics (like the estimated 60 to 80 million deaths worldwide) and detach yourself from the thought of so much human suffering.

And that’s a major reason why Company of Heroes 2 is so fascinating. Not only does it highlight the war fought along the Eastern Front from 1941-1945, but the single-player campaign tells this underappreciated tale through the eyes of (fictional) lieutenant Lev Abramovich Isakovich—and how he copes, years later, with the questionable tactics the Reds often used for “the sake of the greater good” as he’s interrogated by a former superior officer.

The campaign weaves its way through the greatest battles along the Eastern Front, from the very beginning with Operation Barbarossa, through to the bloody Battle of Stalingrad,  continuing to where the Soviets started turning the tables with Operation Iskra (as well as plenty of events around and in between these key moments), and forward right up until the end of the war. Each battle offers a specific set of mission-completion parameters that push your own strategic merits to the limit—and show off what Relic’s new Essence Engine 3.0 can do from a visual perspective.

Some of these visuals effects include the all-important, brand-new weather system that simulates blizzard conditions. The idea of “General Winter” is one that’s protected the Russians for generations, and to see it in full force in Company of Heroes 2 is a new wrinkle that shouldn’t be taken lightly; soldiers who stray from shelter or the warmth of a campfire for too long will start to suffer from hypothermia. There’s no worse feeling in Company of Heroes 2 than watching your soldiers drop, one by one, as they march across the frozen Soviet wasteland, leaving dead bodies in their wake like breadcrumbs. You’re struggling to search for salvation before you’ve even fired your first bullet.

The flipside, of course, is that General Winter can also create new terrain by freezing lakes and rivers. This allows clever players to send an enemy tank that’s decided to take a shortcut over thin ice to a watery grave or cut off a combatant’s retreat or advance with some well-placed mortar fire that shatters the ice.

But aside from this added wintery nuance and a tweaked line-of-sight system that requires your forces to actually be able to see something directly in order to remove the fog of war, there’s very little new here for returning players. That’s not to say that fans will be disappointed—far from it—but if you’re looking for extreme innovation, you might be disappointed.

But as much as Company of Heroes pros might be able to jump right in and get a relatively quick grasp on the situation, newcomers might be as lost as a hapless German soldier trapped behind enemy lines in the Russian winter. The campaign tutorials do little to explore the full upgrade branches of many troops; they limit players to abilities that would fit the situation. This provides a sense of realism rarely seen in an RTS, but it also makes it difficult to learn just what your units can do when certain abilities are suddenly missing for reasons that aren’t adequately explained.

When you get to the multiplayer aspects of Company of Heroes 2, the game is like most any other RTS title. You set up your base, acquire resources, upgrade troops, and attempt to annihilate the enemy from the map or capture certain objectives. Here, RTS vets will find a polished experience that provides a plethora of options to keep the experience fresh; you can set a variety of in-game parameters, such as the all-important weather scenario or computer-controlled AI options. But those coming here from the campaign will be in for a shock; the multiplayer pacing is drastically faster, and the first few matches might give players a rude awakening.

Company of Heroes 2 serves as a shining example of what the best developers can achieve in the RTS genre. The compelling characters and situations seen in single-player and the bountiful array of multiplayer options combine for a winning combination—like borscht and vodka.

Developer: Relic Entertainment • Publisher: Sega • ESRB: M – Mature • Release Date: 06.25.13
8.5

While there’s little new here to differentiate between titles besides the change of scenery to WWII’s Eastern Front, Relic once again delivers a premiere RTS experience.
The Good Expansive single-player campaign that does real-life events justice while featuring a bevy of multiplayer options.
The Bad Not for newcomers—and nothing new for veterans.
The Ugly General Winter’s icy grasp.
Company of Heroes 2 is a PC exclusive. 
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EGM’s Armchair Developer: Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag

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June 24, 2013

Everyone loves speculating about where the Assassin’s Creed franchise will go next. And there are always rumors swirling around ranging from Ancient Egypt to Feudal Japan. In order to try to get ahead of the next wave of rumors, we here at EGM decided to help out the guys at Ubisoft and pitch some of our own ideas about where the franchise should head after Edward and the Caribbean.

Scenario #1:
1990s Seattle – Kurt Cobain and Nirvana’s rise to fame has been fueled by the Templars–and it is your job to put an end to it!

Creative Director, Jean Guesdon: Attractiveness…an eight out of ten. Viability…a two.

Mission Director, Ashraf Ismail: Wow. Do you have to make a deal with Courtney Love? Interesting idea. [Laughs]

Lead Writer, Darby McDevitt: Oooh, I don’t think Kurt could be a templar.  He’d probably not be an assassin though, either cause he was pretty pacifist.

Scenario #2:
1920s-30s US – The Assassins kidnap the Lindbergh baby because Charles Lindbergh is a high-ranking Templar.

Guesdon: No. But this is a good way of thinking, because you’re taking a cool event that we can add a lot more layers to.

Ismail: I can just imagine if we actually do it and we get sued. [Laughs]

McDevitt: Eh, yeah, I could see that.

Scenario #3:
1930s Pacific Ocean – Amelia Earhart is an Assassin who fakes her disappearance in order to disguise an upcoming attack against the Templars.

Guesdon: Could be cool. And it could be the biggest open world we could have, right? Flying all over the planet. But, we just introduced ships. Now we have to introduce planes.

Ismail: Alright, that’s kind of cool actually, that’s not bad.

McDevitt: Yeah, we can do that. Maybe like a jazz age, F. Scott Fitzgerald and all those guys.  Yeah, do like 1920-1935 or right before the war.  And maybe the game ends with the start of WWII.  And everyone’s like, ‘ah, we failed to prevent the tragedy.’  So, instead of the WWII assassins that everyone wants, we actually stop right when WWII begins and invert the story telling.

 

If you’d like to see more interesting tidbits from the guys behind the Assassin’s Creed franchise and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag specifically, be sure to pick up the print issue of EGM 260, out on newsstands everywhere now! (And if you want to see what else is in the issue, head over here for a more comprehensive rundown.)

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EGM Review: Marvel Heroes

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Dr. Doomed from the start

Right next to having superpowers of their own and fighting alongside their favorite characters, the next best thing for most comic-book fans would be actually assuming the role of their most beloved superheroes. Personally, I’d probably like to be one of the X-Men. Wolverine, Iceman, or Colossus, if possible—I’m not picky.

The guys and gals at Gazillion Entertainment zero in on this concept with their free-to-play PC game, Marvel Heroes. Driven by Diablo-style action-RPG mechanics, the game sees players starting off by choosing one of five heroes who most comic fans would consider B-list: Hawkeye, Storm, Scarlet Witch, Daredevil, and the Thing. By beating the game—or spending some cold, hard cash—you can unlock other heroes or purchase a variety of costumes for these characters.

Unfortunately, if you’re like me and get tempted into picking up the ’90s X-Men cartoon version of Cyclops or Wolverine after a few story chapters, you’ll soon realize that the starter characters represent core classes—and no matter what hero you choose, the powersets are basically the same, just with different animations.

Considering the differences between the heroes in the Marvel universe, this was frustrating as a fan. After all, I was willing to shell out the cash—only to find out there’s no need beyond cosmetic preferences. To add insult to injury, each purchased character starts at level 1, so if you want to immediately use them, the game recommends that you start the entire adventure over again, no matter what point you’re currently at.

A couple of saving graces here, however, are the story and comic-book-still cutscenes. Written by Marvel super-scribe Brian Michael Bendis, the tale incorporates some of Marvel’s most famous story arcs from all their major comic lines into one tidy package. The basics, though, boil down to this: Dr. Doom has a Cosmic Cube, and he feels like messing with reality, because that’s what megalomaniacal bad guys do. I’ve also got to compliment the top-notch voice acting in the cutscenes, including instantly recognizable pros like Nolan North as Deadpool, Steve Blum as Wolverine, and Keith David as Nick Fury.

After choosing your characters, it’s time to actually play the game. And by the time I got a third of the way through the campaign, I’d already grown bored. Instead of offering any kind of variety or difficulty, the game simply threw more and more enemies at me—or gave them an insane amount of health—in the hopes of slowing me down. But it’s not like I was actually doing anything. I played as Hawkeye for most of the game after wasting my money, so all I had to do was get a decent distance away, hold the Shift key in order to ground my hero, and then hold another button to attack. Sometimes two. If I played as the Hulk or Thing, the only thing that changed was my distance relative to the target. The enemy spawn times are also horribly balanced, and I’d regularly clear an area of Hand ninjas or HYDRA goons, only to have them reappear nanoseconds later.

One decent aspect of the gameplay, however, comes in the dungeons. If you turn on auto-grouping, you can enter any dungeon without the fear of being completely overwhelmed. Unlike a lot of other MMOs, when you enter a dungeon around the same time as other players, you can be automatically placed on a team with them. Of course, this can lead to the confusing dilemma of having six Hawkeyes on the same team (which happened to me a lot) and getting your particular avatar lost in the chaos, but if you’re a more introverted gamer, you don’t have to worry about pulling up an awkward chat window, begging for assistance, and dealing with complete strangers.

Normally, this is about where I’d wrap up my review, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about the most disappointing aspect of my time playing Marvel Heroes: the technical side. I purposely waited as long as I did to put up my review because I was waiting to see how the game performed after some patches. While the game has seen several small patches and one major fix in the two weeks since the game went live, I’m still experiencing many gameplay-balance problems, as well as numerous technical issues.

Every 20 to 30 minutes, my game crashes or freezes for no apparent reason, and while I’ve reported this error on the technical forums, it remains unfixed after performing the recommended actions from the support staff. I’ve made sure my drivers are up to date, I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled the game launcher, and I’ve even turned down the specs to the lowest possible setting (my PC isn’t the highest-end gaming rig, but it should handle the minimum requirements no problem).

This left the support staff confounded—and me increasingly frustrated. So, I want to warn people before they play Marvel Heroes: In my experience, it just doesn’t work as well as it should. And after perusing the forums, I found that the error I encountered is actually pretty common. Then again, you get what you pay for—and the core of the game is free, after all.

So, if the game works for you perfectly, that’s great, but at the end of the day, fewer crashes still won’t make Marvel Heroes the most worthwhile of experiences unless you fall in love with its price tag.

Developer: Gazillion Entertainment • Publisher: Gazillion Entertainment • ESRB: N/A • Release Date: 06.04.13
4.0
While Marvel Heroes does some nice things, the Marvel license isn’t enough to cover up glaring technical and design flaws. As much as I wanted to like this game, I can’t recommend something that is, at its core, broken. In the end, you get what you pay for (or less, if you actually invested in this).
The Good Story that expertly reimagines some of Marvel’s greatest moments.
The Bad Constant crashing and glitches; uninspired gameplay.
The Ugly Expecting to get something for nothing—and then being surprised when what you get just isn’t that good.
Marvel Heroes is a PC exclusive. 
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E3 2013: EGM Preview: Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag

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Next-gen haystacks look awesome

Before E3 officially got underway, a select few of us in the game-journalism community were able to go behind closed doors and get a peek at Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. Not only did we get a taste of what our colleagues in the industry would see during the show, but we also saw exclusive content that won’t be available on the floor or shown during any of the E3 press briefings. For those of you keeping track, the demonstration featured a PS4 build of the game.

We’ve been told since the game was announced several months ago that, more than ever before, players will be given a variety of choices in Assassin’s Creed IV. An emphasis on stealth will return, but it won’t be forced down players’ throats if they prefer a more forward approach. Each mark has a multitude of ways they can be eliminated, and the open seas will be chock-full of uncharted beaches and islands—and exploration is up to the player.

In our demo, we finally got to see these ideas implemented in actual gameplay and into mission types we’ve come to expect from Assassin’s Creed. The first mission we saw was a sidequest from the always-friendly carrier pigeons, who never know that each flight they make promises the death of a Templar when their messages are read. In this mission, Edward needed to eliminate twin Templar brothers operating on the island of Grand Cayman.

Before we get any further, let me just talk about how stunning the game looked. This first section in Grand Cayman was a small fishing village that gave a great sense of how the foliage and water will look in-game. The water was so blue and crystal clear that you’d think it stepped right out of a travel brochure; the trees were also far smoother and more varied than in Assassin’s Creed III and were adorned with brightly colored fruit, with each branch moving independently of its brethren. This level of detail continued throughout our demo: Ever-present haystacks, underbrush players can even duck into, and the buildings of Havana’s unique colonial architecture came to life with spectacular visuals.

Anyway, back to the task at hand. After working his way through the small fishing village, Edward came upon the twins, who he marked with his Eagle Vision. One was sitting at a bar, the other bartering with a local salesman. Edward approached the bar, and quietly stabbed the first brother with his hidden blade, and let his carcass slump unceremoniously to the floor. The second brother had noticed and a chase familiar to previous games had begun.

It was here that we began to see some of the new gameplay implementations of Assassin’s Creed IV. The first was free-aiming with your guns. Instead of automatically locking on with his flintlock pistol, a traditional aiming reticule came on the screen and Edward unceremoniously missed, the shot sailing past the still surviving twin’s right leg, as our demo player promised us it would be alright.

Continuing the chase, the twin made it to the docks where his ship was held and he promptly began trying to make his escape. Unluckily for the twin, Edward’s ship, the Jackdaw, was parked right next to him and suddenly this chase through a crowded market turned into a chase on the high seas as we boarded our ship with a rousing “huzzah!” from the crew.

This led to our first naval battle in the demo. The first new addition that caught my eye is that enemy ships now have lifebars above them, giving you a much better sense of how much damage you’ve done to a ship. It’s also a necessary indicator for what came next. After substantially weakening the fleeing twin’s ship with familiar buckshot from the Jackdaw’s cannons, the demo gave us the option to pull up close to it in order to board it. Grappling hooks launches from the hands of our crew and pulled the crippled vessel towards the Jackdaw. It was pointed out that we could have just sunk the ship and still completed the mission, but this would also be our first chance to see the benefits of boarding ships when prompted.

In typical Assassin fashion, Edward dispatched much of the crew and the final twin to complete the mission. But we still had this ship drifting, now captainless, across the Caribbean Sea. It was here the game offered us an interesting array of rewards for successfully boarding and dispatching the crew. We could cannibalize the ship to help fix the Jackdaw, recruit the crew of the ship to add to the Jackdaw’s, or promote a crew member to captain the ship and send it off to be part of Edward’s private fleet. The demo driver chose this final option and we were introduced to a new mechanic in the form of “Kenway’s Fleet”.

Similar to how in Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation you had a ship to trade goods for throughout the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, in Black Flag Edward can build up his own personal fleet to harass unsuspecting vessels. There won’t be any loss of goods here, however. If your fleet should find success on their own individual adventures, all the bounty will find its way to Edward’s pockets.

We were then introduced to one of the ways to command the Fleet and that was through a new, free Assassin’s Creed IV companion app for iPad and Android devices. Not only would this app serve as a way to command our fleet, but it could serve as a permanent world map that you could use to set waypoints live in game with. This is to help keep the action constantly moving so you don’t have to hit the pause button as much. In that same vein, the Animus entries for real world locations, people, and items you may come across on your adventure can also be read through the app, whether you are playing or not. No better way to destroy pacing than reading a few thousand words on game lore, so why not do it when not playing the game?

The next instance of gameplay we saw was one of those uncharted locations I mentioned earlier. A shipwreck caught our eye, washed up against a small sand dune. After jumping off the ship and exploring a little, we came across a recently deceased pirate being gnawed on by a bushel of crabs. After searching his body, we found a treasure map that pointed us to a Spanish controlled island. After sailing through a randomly generated storm, we reached the island and we had the options again of running in and hoping our fighting skills were up to the challenge, or going a stealthier route.

Looking to show off the stealth mechanics, our demo driver took us up a longer, but quieter path along the side of the island, where we only had to dispatch a single soldier before coming across a scene where two unfortunate souls had been a little less stealthy and were caught by some of the Spanish soldiers.

In this scene, we got another taste of the improved HUD, as soldiers now had big white circles above their heads to indicate if they had seen us or not. With a quick whistle, we got the soldiers to come investigate an area where we wouldn’t be anymore by the time they got there, and their circles had turned yellow.  Then we engaged them in combat, where we saw the circles turn red, and we ran them through to rescue the slaves and offer them jobs upon the Jackdaw. We then dug up the buried treasure, synchronized a nearby viewpoint as it was explained they now serve as fast travel points due to the massive size of Black Flag’s world, and headed back to the Jackdaw.

Where most folks at E3 would see this as the end of their demo, we had the chance to continue onward and we’d have been fools to not agree to press on. So, after boarding the Jackdaw again, we came across a heavily defended fort. In order to quell some of the enemy naval activity in the area, we began bombarding the fort’s walls with cannon fire, and sailed out of harm’s way expertly by the demo driver.

After toppling over all six of the forts main towers and walls, Edward and his crew leapt from the Jackdaw and stormed the fort. Once inside, again there were multiple pathways for Edward to take as he began his search to kill the fort’s Governor. Some had more enemies, while others required more free-running sequences, but either way, once you struck down the Governor, the fort belonged to Edward.

Forts aren’t just important for bringing enemy influence down either. We were told a contingent of crew is left behind so that if you are ever in trouble, you can lure enemy ships near your fort and the fort will pummel the enemy ships with cannon fire as well, giving you a permanent ally out on the ocean.

The final bit of gameplay we saw took place in Havana. If anyone had worried that the team behind AC IV would focus too much on the water aspects of the game, you don’t need to worry anymore. Seeing Havana actually triggered flashbacks in my mind to AC II and the team admitted Florence was a heavy influence when it came to its layout and design. Running along rooftops and stealth assassinating posted sentries never looked as good. And the city is absolutely a sprawling urban area full of the life and detail you would expect from any Assassin’s Creed city.

But we were here with a purpose. A local trader had gotten too big for his britches and he needed to be put down. He had grown paranoid, however, and had soldiers stationed around his villa at all times. Here more so than any other gameplay segment we saw was where many options were laid out before us. We could sneak in and do the dirty deed up close and personal in the shadows. Wait until he approached a powder keg just asking to be blown up and fire a bullet at it. Use our berserker blowdarts and have one of his precious bodyguards do the deed for us. Or run in swinging our swords like a madman and hope for the best. I voted for the powder keg option, and that’s what we did. I like explosions.

In order to escape our loud assassination however, we saw a bit more of Edward in direct combat. Much like Connor with his Tomahawk, Edward is an expert with his dual cutlasses and he would often use them both to really drive the point home on his foes, slicing open necks, stabbing both of them through a ribcage, or a flurry of seemingly mad slashes that would cut foes into ribbons.

Even though our demo was only 40-minutes long, we got a sense of the countless acts Edward could do to help the Assassin’s cause as well as forward his own standing in the world. The options given to us cater to gamers of all kinds and the fact that no one style trumps any other will help Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag possibly resonate with fans and newcomers to the series alike. And the sheer scope of the Caribbean Sea looks to hopefully assure gamers that this is the model of what a pirate game should be from here on out.

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